Orioles avoid disaster with homer-filled 7-3 win over Nationals

Jacob Calvin Meyer, The Baltimore Sun on May 17, 2026

Published in Baseball

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

WASHINGTON — On this day last year, the Orioles’ season essentially ended during a series against the Nationals.

Amid a 15-28 start and after an ugly loss to the Nats, manager Brandon Hyde was fired— a tacit admission from the franchise’s leaders that the team was too far gone and a change needed to be made. The Orioles then lost the next two games against the Nationals at Camden Yards embarrassingly, as the season for a should-be playoff contender circled the drain.

The stakes weren’t as dire Sunday in D.C., but after back-to-back losses in this series’ first two games to fall to a season-worst six games below .500, the Orioles badly needed a win to skirt disaster.

They did just that — and it was on the backs of their young core. The Orioles avoided being swept by the Nationals with a 7-3 win behind homers from Gunnar Henderson, Coby Mayo and Colton Cowser.

For Henderson, it broke his May slump. For Mayo, it continued his bounce back from the worst moment of his MLB career. For Cowser, it was his first homer of a season that’s been perhaps the most challenging of his life.

And for the Orioles, it marked just the third time this season that an offense that was billed as one of the most powerful in baseball hit three or more homers in the same game.

Starting pitcher Brandon Young was solid early, but he ran into trouble in the fourth. Manager Craig Albernaz went to his bullpen early, and it paid off, as relievers Anthony Nunez, Tyler Wells, Yennier Cano and Rico Garcia yielded just one run in 5 1/3 innings.

After Saturday’s 13-3 loss, the Orioles fell to a season-worst six games below .500 — 10 1/2 games out of first place in the American League East, and only a half game out of last place in the division. Their minus-48 run differential was the second-worst in MLB, ahead of only the lowly Los Angeles Angels.

Baltimore is now 21-26 and somehow only 1 1/2 games off the last wild-card spot in the mediocre AL.

The Nationals (23-24) changed their pitching plans Sunday morning, going with left-hander Richard Lovelady as an opener for righty Miles Mikolas, who was originally scheduled to start. That backfired, though, as Gunnar Henderson launched a solo homer off Lovelady, depositing a front-door slider into the first row of the third deck at Nats Park. Henderson entered this series hitting .154 with a .343 OPS in May, but he broke out this weekend with five hits.

Mikolas was even worse than Lovelady. Mayo launched a two-run long ball in the second to put Baltimore up 3-0. The third baseman gently placed his bat on the ground after the big fly, one day after he launched his bat in the air after a homer that ended up landing foul. Ten days ago, Mayo’s game-ending throwing error resulted in an Orioles loss in Miami. Since, he’s been one of the Orioles’ best hitters, including a three-run homer in Monday’s win over the Yankees.

After Jacob Young’s solo homer off Young in the second, the Orioles tacked on another run on a sacrifice fly from Pete Alonso. Cowser then put the Orioles up 6-1 with his first homer of the season. The 2024 AL Rookie of the Year runner-up has spent most of this season slumping and has temporarily lost his job as a starting outfielder, but his homer Sunday was a result of weeks of behind-the-scenes work on his swing and approach.

Washington loaded the bases with no outs in the fourth and scored on a Keibert Ruiz sacrifice fly. After a James Wood infield single loaded the bases with two outs, Albernaz went to Nunez, who escaped the jam by striking out Luis García Jr.

The Nationals’ next chance to put up a crooked number was in the seventh off Wells. After a scoreless sixth, Wells gave up a run on a two-out infield single by CJ Abrams. Albernaz left Wells in the game to face Daylen Lile, who represented the potential tying run, and the 6-foot-8 righty struck out Lile to end the threat.

Henderson smacked his season-high fourth hit in the ninth, an RBI single, for the Orioles’ seventh and final run. Garcia allowed a rare hit — only his second surrendered this season — while slamming the door with a scoreless ninth.

Around the horn

• Before Sunday’s game, the Orioles made a bullpen move, recalling prospect Cameron Foster from Triple-A Norfolk and optioning lefty Josh Walker. Foster has an 8.05 ERA in 19 innings between the majors and minors this season, while Walker pitched in both losses Friday and Saturday.

• Three players were removed early from minor league games Sunday. Jackson Holliday came out after two at-bats during his minor league rehabilitation game for Norfolk as part of his progression back from hamate surgery. Ryan Noda came out of Norfolk’s game with a right knee injury suffered by colliding with the outfield wall. And prospect Ike Irish, who recently joined MLB Pipeline and Baseball America’s top 100 lists, was removed from High-A Frederick’s game after being hit by a pitch on his right wrist.

_______